In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Like any Cheech & Chong film, ideally the viewer should be bombed in one way or another. That said, you probably couldn't make this film today; with political correctness being what it is, the various racial and ethnic stereotypes would surly create a boycott. Watch it anyway. Just keep in mind the year it was made and what was going on in the world at the time. As for the boys, Cheech seems to be having the most fun and for my money is the better actor. In their dual role as Arab brothers,Chong can't hold on to his accent. Rip Taylor is funny in a cameo. Lastly, it is always fun to see film of Las Vegas in it's various stages of development/demolition. A good, rainy day movie and like I said, it's best when "stoned".

"Things Are Tough All Over" takes a little bit of a different turn from the stoner duo's previous movies. This one casts them as hustlers in Chicago who take a job driving a car to Las Vegas, not knowing that the car's owners -- C & C in dual roles as Arab princes -- have stashed money in the automobile.Of course, the movie is just an excuse for a bunch of silliness. There's less in the way of drugs this time around, but there's plenty to make up for it. The best scene was probably the movie theater.Yeah, just an excuse to be goofy, but that's what makes it great. Evelyn Guerrero reappears as Cheech's girlfriend Donna, and Rip Taylor also appears.

Cheech and Chong are back in such strong form here that it makes me wonder if I shouldn't reevaluate the previous film, Nice Dreams (1981), which seemed like a misstep to me on my last viewing.Of course, there are some major differences with Things are Tough All Over. For Nice Dreams, Cheech and Chong took the ultimate stoner/slacker route and made a film with little plot or direction. It seemed like they were engaging in the same behavior offscreen as on and just and playing around with loose, rough ideas. Maybe they also wondered what the heck they had done when later watching Nice Dreams (or watching the box office returns), because for Things are Tough All Over, they took an entirely different path and crafted an intricately structured comic misadventure where they play two interweaving sets of characters--Cheech and Chong, of course, and Mr. Slyman (Cheech) and Prince Habib (Chong), Arab brothers who serve as Cheech and Chong's employers in various guises.The script for Things are Tough All Over may have been something Cheech and Chong were working on for awhile. The basic subtext (as reflected in the title) is the recession during the Carter years in the U.S. Slyman and Habib represent the flipside of the gas crisis (which is both metaphorically and literally in the plot at the same time in interesting and funny ways, even including flatulence jokes), and their prosperity as well as Cheech and Chong's role in the climax and denouement of the film represent the change of economic and social climate of the Reagan years. This may be reading a bit too heavily into the film, but to some extent, these themes were definitely intentional.Not that this is a serious film. The gags here are on par with Up in Smoke (1978). And given the engaging misadventure/road-movie plot, the gags have a purpose that makes them that much better. Things are Tough All Over is also unusual in that it's the first Cheech and Chong film that's not focused on drugs. Not that I dislike drug humor (or the idea of drug use), but not _having_ to make this film about drugs opens up the door for Cheech and Chong to focus on comedy for its own sake. They go with material because it's going to be funny, and their timing is exquisitely on--they know just how far they can milk any particular joke for maximum effect.

Thing's Are Tough All Over is a funny movie. No spare parts needed to pump up the action and, in a way, works by being slightly more laid back then the past ones. It actually takes away an element without too much trouble and adds another. And it stays funny. The pot is what's taken away, for the most part, with maybe one or two tiny moments put in to reference their past films. What do they add? A road-movie attitude and two new characters by Cheech and Chong which are hilarious. Not withstanding that they're the most blatant kind of caricatures imaginable, they also have the funniest lines in the film. It's one thing to just have the look of these characters, but the duo pepper each one with clever dialog from start to finish (some of it pretty weird in its way). Some scenes here and there lag, but when the pace picks up again tenfold once they arrive in Las Vegas. With a funny cameo by Rip Taylor this film is one of Cheech and Chong's best.